1. Field of the Invention
The printing industry extensively uses die cutters and perforators in their printing operations. These die cutters and/or perforators are mounted on a cylinder and in cooperation with an adjacent anvil cylinder are capable of cutting or perforating a paper web passing therebetween. Until very recently these die cutters and perforators were accurately machined from blocks of steel. This type of construction is of course very expensive and not easily accomplished. A common example of the use of a die cutter is the window envelope where a generally rectangularly shaped opening is cut in the paper and a transparent material placed thereover so the name and address may be seen therethrough.
More recently die cutters and perforators have been made in strip form with an adhesive provided on the back so that selected length pieces could be held in a fixed position on the cutting cylinder. However, most of these have been in just straight form and were primarily designed for cutting slits or perforating a paper web. If a cut-out were desired, great care would have to be taken in arranging pieces on the cylinder so their corners met properly to make a clean cut at these corners.
The present invention is concerned with a device to bend the straight die cutters and/or perforators into any desired shape such as circles, parts of circles, rectangles or other polygonal shapes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The patent to Boyd U.S. Pat. No. 2,842,202 shows a perforating strip to be used on a cylindrical offset printing press. The Boyd patent drawing shows an inverted "T" shaped strip and an "L" shaped strip in which one of the "L" legs is the cutting portion. The present invention utilizes straight line strips of cutters and perforators such as shown in the Boyd patent and bends that strip into any desired shape without impairing the cutting edges and keeping the "L" or "T" flanges substantially flat for easy and proper adherence thereof to the outer surface of a cylinder used in conjunction with printing devices.